I’ve been feeling pretty torn lately. Some of my friends have been openly defending Charlie Kirk, or dismissing his words as inconsequential and honestly – yikes.
As a gay man who cares about equality and protecting vulnerable communities including transgender people, it’s hard not to feel hurt. His views clash with pretty much everything I believe in. This isn’t about denying free speech; it’s about the impact of the actual words he’s said which have caused real pain to people like me and those I care about.
Now, I get it, people have different backgrounds, perspectives, and reasons for supporting who they support. Politics is rarely black and white and I’m doing my best to remember that you can disagree with someone’s views without writing them off as a person entirely. Still, it’s difficult not to take it personally when those views feel like they’re aimed directly at people like me.
So here I am, stuck in the middle. Do I try to educate my friends and have those awkward but important conversations? Or do I just quietly back away for the sake of my sanity? On one hand, staying silent feels like I’m giving a free pass to stuff I find deeply harmful. On the other, launching into a political discussion over dinner doesn’t exactly scream fun night out.
I worry that speaking up might lead to tense arguments, or worse, the end of a friendship. Saying nothing, however, feels like I’m betraying my own values, and that doesn’t sit well with me either.
Recovery has taught me I can’t control what other people believe and trust me, I’ve tried, but I can control how I respond. I’m working on finding that sweet spot between empathy and boundaries, between keeping it real and keeping the peace.
It’s not easy, and there’s no simple answer here. But I’m committed to being honest with myself and with the people in my life.
I won’t be able to understand fully how you feel but I do have a similar opinion about him (rest in peace) and I did had that ‘awkward’ talk with my friend and to be honest, if you could make it as an open discussion and all parties can sit and accept one another’s point of view without pointing fingers, I think it would be great to strengthen the friendship’s bond…otherwise it’ll tell you more about them than about you cause all you’re trying to do is explaining why you feel and or reacted a certain way (: I hope it all goes well, cheers!
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Thank you. Me too.
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